


flowers, non-romantic stylez

by wannabequeen



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Aromantic, Asexual Character, M/M, Queer Character, Queerplatonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 21:06:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3355259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wannabequeen/pseuds/wannabequeen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Enjolras brings Grantaire flowers on Valentine's Day, but he doesn't want R to interpret it as a romantic gesture.</p>
<p>(it's kind of ooc because they actually communicate but they are boys in a kitchen surrounded by flowers). modern au. Warnings for implied past alcohol use, though everyone is sober by the time the story happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	flowers, non-romantic stylez

Grantaire opens his door to what seems like a rosebush with legs. “I need you,” it says. 

“I’m too hung over for this shit, Courf, let me get through this Valentine’s hellscape alone, please,” he says, and moves to slam it in Rosebush’s face.

“Wait!” Rosebush cries, awkwardly shifting the enormous bouquet slightly to the left to reveal a large mass of blond hair, an ear, and part of a forehead. “I need you to let me in, I have to put this down, my arms are going to fall off, it’s so heavy.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want that, how could you raise arms against the ruling class if you literally had no arms?” Grantaire steps to the side, allowing a very harried Enjolras into his apartment. He takes a moment alone in his entryway to regret answering the door in his boxers and a shirt he stole from Bahorel. When he turns around, Enjolras is in the kitchen, filling yesterday’s empties with water and shoving roses in. 

Leaning against the doorjamb, Grantaire has to ask. “You showed up at my door, on Valentine’s Day, with enough long-stemmed roses to kill a man with allergies. Is this your way of saying something, or is it a very cruel joke?” 

“I need you to not interpret this as a romantic gesture,” Enjolras replies, snapping stems so that they’re short enough to fit in a wine bottle. 

“You have to see how that would be difficult, Ange.”

“Would you believe me if I say it was Jehan and one of ver capital-R Romantic things? There was something to do with a bouquet of fallen lovers, I don’t know, I was too busy trying not to get stabbed with thorns to follow.”

“That, I will buy. Ve told you to come to me?”

“You were closest, I thought you might like them for still lifes or something – what are the rest of our friends going to do with 7000 pounds of roses?” Enjolras frowns at the flowers like they just tried to argue the benefits of Reaganomics. 

“Well, given that it’s Valentine’s Day, maybe… give them to their loved ones? Bossuet probably already dropped the flowers he got for Joly and Musichetta down a sewer or something, he’d appreciate these.”

“While true, by the time I got across the city with these, they’d have moved on from giving each other flowers to giving each other… other things, which I don’t need to see.” Enjolras winces, and Grantaire nods in sympathy. The three of them are not too situationally aware once they get going. “I just really need you to know that these Are Not Romantic, Grantaire. It’s not that I don’t like you –“

“It’s just that you couldn’t stoop to loving a mess like me, especially not when your mistress Patria is there for you, I know.” Grantaire waves a hand vaguely through the air and makes eye contact with the cabinet just over Enjolras’s right shoulder.

Enjolras gets a little line between his eyebrows, but continues. “—it’s not that I don’t like you, it’s that I don’t do romantic gestures, because I’m aro! I love you like I love all of our friends, R. But I’m uncomfortable with romance and I’d be uncomfortable if you thought this was a romantic thing, when it isn’t.”

“Because you’re aro.”

“Because I’m aro.”

“If you weren’t–“

“Please don’t ask me that.”

“Fair.” Grantaire sucks in a breath between his teeth. “Given that you’re aro, and I’m a fucking mess, would you like to go shopping for on-sale candy tomorrow and watch a movie together?”

Enjolras squints at him, standing contrapposto, with his arms crossed. Surrounded by flowers, he looks like some skeptical love interest from one of Cosette’s shoujos.  
“I am asking you on a date. Non-romantic stylez.” Grantaire says after the squinting has gone from cute to somewhat unnerving. 

“I’m also ace. You’re not gonna be getting sex.” Enjolras finally says.

“Yeah, um, that’s cool, I’m happy for whatever you want to give me, if that’s your way of saying yes?” R runs his hands through his hair, still wishing he had had a chance to do literally anything about his appearance before he did this.

“In that case, sure. I’ll come back tomorrow and we’ll get chocolate. Find a good movie for us to watch.” Enjolras bustles around, doing not much of anything, but avoiding Grantaire’s eyes. Finally, he picks up a rose that hadn’t made its way into an empty wine bottle yet, and walks towards the door. Before he leaves, he spins around, tucks it behind Grantaire’s ear, and says, “Here. A flower of queerplatonic intent, which is definitely not a romantic gesture. Bye.”

And with that, Enjolras is gone and the door is shut. Grantaire takes a deep, rose-scented breath, and starts looking up times for that space princess janitor movie whose antagonist looks unsettlingly like Marius.

**Author's Note:**

> "romatic stylez" taken from Jake Peralta on Brooklyn 99. The movie referenced in the last line is Jupiter Rising, which I cannot wait to see. All this was inspired by a text I sent a friend, because I would be showing up at their room on valentines day with flowers and I didn’t want it to seem like I was Bringing Them Flowers.


End file.
